The Kyoto protocol: Empirical evidence of a hidden success

How effective was the Kyoto protocol? International Environmental Agreements (IEA) have been on the rise over the past four decades; however, thus far their effectiveness is controversial. In view of the conflicting results found in the related literature, this paper addresses its effectiveness by utilizing for the first time the generalized synthetic control method (GSCM) to compare the emissions of the industrialized countries with a “No- Kyoto” counterfactual scenario that represents the expected emissions in the absence of the protocol. This method facilitates a robust comparison between treated and control countries as done by Almer and Winkler (2017) and account for the multiple treated units as done by Grunewald and Martinez-Zarzoso (2016), so as to capture the collective nature of the protocol. Results show that the protocol was successful in reducing the emissions of the ratifying countries approximately by 7% below the emissions expected under a “No-Kyoto” scenario, confirming the importance of accounting for the collective nature of the agreement.     

Negotiating housing deal on a polluted day: Consequences and possible explanations

The topic of air pollution has drawn considerable attention globally. In this paper, we examine the immediate effect of air pollution on a substantial decision, that is, a housing purchase. By linking housing purchasing behavior with the air quality in Beijing, we document market participants' behaviors unexplained by rational economic theories. Our main result suggests that the transaction prices on a severely polluted day are 0.65% higher than those of the days without pollution, other things being equal. This translates into approximately 3.51 million yuan daily increase based on the average transaction volume and price on a typical day in Beijing. The heterogeneity analysis further suggests that this effect is mostly driven by non-local and low income buyers. After ruling out rational explanations, we demonstrate that our empirical results are consistent with salience theory under weak assumptions.     

Fe2O3/MIL-53(Al)催化类芬顿氧化性能及其作用机制研究

以MIL-53(Al)和铁盐为原料,采用浸渍-焙烧的方法,制备了Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)类芬顿催化剂.通过扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、射透射电子显微镜(TEM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)、傅里叶变换红外光谱仪(FTIR)及X射线光电子能谱仪(XPS),对Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)、MIL-53(Al)及Fe_2O_3 3种材料的理化性质进行了表征.以亚甲基蓝为相关材料催化类芬顿反应氧化性能的指示剂,考察了Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)、MIL-53(Al)及Fe_2O_3 3种材料催化类芬顿反应的活性.探讨了Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)催化活性强化的相关作用机制.研究结果表明,Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)的物化结构特征是以赤铁矿为主的纳米Fe_2O_3颗粒均匀、离散地分布在MIL-53(Al)之上,纳米Fe_2O_3颗粒尺寸大多集中在1～5 nm.与未负载纳米Fe_2O_3相比,其分散性和颗粒尺寸都展现出潜在优越性.Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)材料催化类芬顿反应降解水溶液中亚甲基蓝的效果是未负载纳米Fe_2O_3的4.8倍(以反应速率常数计),且TOC去除率亦有明显优势.自由基猝灭实验结果表明Fe_2O_3/MIL-53(Al)催化类芬顿降解污染物的主要活性氧类物质为羟基自由基.MIL-53(Al)孔结构发达、孔分布均匀及孔尺寸较小且均一等结构特征,导致负载其中的Fe_2O_3具有孔道负载量大、颗粒分布离散且均匀、颗粒粒径小且均一等特点,从而强化了纳米Fe_2O_3催化类芬顿反应氧化降解水中污染物的性能.     

全氟辛烷磺化物(PFOS)诱导斑马鱼胚胎p53基因的点突变

将斑马鱼胚胎于0μg·1-1(空白对照),5μg·l-1,16μg·l-1和50μg·l-1全氟辛烷磺化物(PFOS)溶液中暴露染毒5h,采用变性高效液相色谱方法对PCR扩增的含斑马鱼胚胎p53基因外显子7的173 bp的目标片段进行突变分析.结果显示,16μg·l-1和50μg·l-1两个处理组与对照组相比均有显著性差异,表明PFOS可以诱导斑马鱼胚胎p53基因外显子7的点突变.     

Does subway expansion improve air quality?

Major cities in China and many other fast-growing economies are expanding their subway systems in order to address worsening air pollution and traffic congestion. This paper quantifies the impact of subway expansion on air quality by leveraging fine-scale air quality data and the rapid build-out of 14 new subway lines and 252 stations in Beijing from 2008 to 2016. Our main empirical framework examines how the density of the subway network affects air quality across different locations in the city during this period. To address the potential endogenous location of subway stations, we construct an instrument based on historical subway planning, long before air pollution and traffic congestion were of concern. Our analysis shows that an increase in subway density by one standard deviation improves air quality by two percent and the result is robust to a variety of alternative specifications including the distance-based difference-in-differences method. The total discounted health benefit during a 20-year period from reduced mortality and morbidity as a result of 14 new subway lines amounts to $1.0–3.1 billion, or only 1.4–4.4 percent of the total construction and operating cost.     

变性高效液相色谱在大通量筛查基因突变中的应用

应用变性高效液相色谱(DHPLC)对已知序列的含外显子7的斑马鱼p53基因片段PCR产物进行突变检测,结果表明,通过克隆测序方法检测出的点突变,用DHPLC同样可以检出.且对该片段的最优化检测柱温为60℃,其特异性很好,敏感性大于95%.     

Firms' and states’ responses to laxer environmental standards

On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced the United States' withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change. Despite this decision, American firms continued investing in low-carbon technologies and some states committed to tougher environmental standards. To understand this apparent paradox, this paper studies how a weakening of environmental standards affects the behavior of profit-maximizing firms. It finds that a relaxation of emission standards (i) may increase firms’ incentives to adopt clean technologies, but not to pollute less; (ii) may negatively affect industry profitability if it is perceived as temporary; and, when this is the case, (iii) the unilateral adoption of stricter standards by large states may increase the expected profitability of every firm.     

MIL-88B(Fe)固定辣根过氧化物酶去除双酚A

通过溶剂热合成法制备了水稳定性的铁基金属有机骨架材料MIL-88B(Fe),并将辣根过氧化酶(HRP)以共价固定法负载在MIL-88B(Fe)上得到MIL-88B(Fe)/HRP复合材料,并用于降解双酚A (BPA)。通过XRD、FTIR、SEM和TGA等手段对材料进行了表征。结果表明,HRP成功固定在MIL-88B(Fe)表面,没有改变MIL-88B(Fe)的形貌和晶体结构;在添加亲水剂聚乙二醇后,MIL-88B(Fe)/HRP可高效去除BPA,1 h内BPA去除率可达99.2%。分别考察了PEG用量、BPA初始质量浓度、固定化酶投加量等对降解效率的影响。结果表明,在PEG/BPA质量比0.4、pH = 7、25 ℃、BPA初始质量浓度20 mg·L⁻¹、固定化酶投加量为0.06 g·L⁻¹的条件下,3 h内可去除98.4%的BPA。此外,MIL-88B(Fe)/HRP复合材料具有较好的稳定性和可重复使用性,固定化HRP的贮存稳定性、热稳定性均优于游离HRP,循环使用4次后,固定化HRP的残余活性仍高于80%。以上研究结果可为新型酶固定材料的开发及其在废水处理中的应用提供参考。     

BDE-47对人胚肾细胞HEK293的毒理效应及作用机制

2,2’,4,4’-四溴联苯醚(BDE-47)是生物体中含量最高且毒性最强的PBDEs之一,有关BDE-47对肾细胞的毒性及其作用机制的研究仍有待补充。选取3个剂量组(低:10-6mol·L-1、中:10-5mol·L-1、高:10-4mol·L-1)及溶剂对照组,研究了BDE-47对人胚肾细胞(HEK293)的细胞凋亡率及活性氧(ROS)水平的影响;并从分子水平对细胞氧化损伤、凋亡相关蛋白(APE1及p53)及凋亡相关基因m RNA(p53、Bax、Caspase 3、Caspase 8)的表达量进行测定。实验结果显示:与对照组相比,中、高剂量组细胞凋亡率显著增加(P0.05);ROS水平在中剂量组显著上升(P0.01);随BDE-47浓度的变化,APE1蛋白表达量与细胞ROS水平存在一致性;p53、Bax、Caspase 8 m RNA表达量与BDE-47的浓度间存在剂量-效应关系。结果表明,BDE-47可诱导HEK293细胞凋亡及氧化应激,APE1可能是细胞ROS升高与细胞凋亡间重要的中介因子;BDE-47可以通过影响Caspase 8及线粒体途径中p53及Bax的表达诱导细胞凋亡。     

Bag leakage: The effect of disposable carryout bag regulations on unregulated bags

Leakage occurs when partial regulation of consumer products results in increased consumption of these products in unregulated domains. This article quantifies plastic leakage from the banning of plastic carryout bags. Using quasi-random policy variation in California, I find the elimination of 40 million pounds of plastic carryout bags is offset by a 12 million pound increase in trash bag purchases—with small, medium, and tall trash bag sales increasing by 120%, 64%, and 6%, respectively. The results further reveal 12–22% of plastic carryout bags were reused as trash bags pre-regulation and show bag bans shift consumers towards fewer but heavier bags. With a substantial proportion of carryout bags already reused in a way that avoided the manufacture and purchase of another plastic bag, policy evaluations that ignore leakage effects overstate the regulation's welfare gains.